The role of medical factors in the failure to achieve desired family size

Abstract

SummaryBecause of the widely held view that a family size of less than two children is undesirable, this paper investigates the extent to which medical conditions occur among one-child and childless families and influence ultimate family size. A partial solution to the inability to have more than one child is adoption, and the extent to which couples use adoption to attain the desired family size is discussed.Regardless of whether or not family size is directly affected, medical factors represent a form of crisis in the lives of women concerned, and thus the incidence rates themselves are of interest. The data suggest that more than one-half of women in Australia experience such a crisis during their childbearing history.